Why Y?

From: The Pythagorean Y

We come now to the Pythagorean Letter Y (Littera Pythagorae Y), which is perhaps less well known nowadays than the other Pythagorean symbols, but has been quite influential in European art, literature and thought. According to a legend, Y was called "the Pythagorean letter" (littera Pythagorica) because he himself had been responsible for adding it to the Greek alphabet:

Pythagoras of Samos was the first to fashion the letter Y into a pattern of human life. The straight portion at the bottom signifies the first, uncertain age, which at that point has been given over to neither vices nor virtues. The bifurcation at the top, however, begins at adolescence. The path to the right is difficult, but it tends toward a blessed life. The path to the left is easier, but it leads to ruin and destruction. The same idea is expressed in an epigram traditionally (but probably incorrectly) attributed to Virgil:

The Pythagoric Letter two ways spread,
Shows the two paths in which Man's life is led.
The right-hand track to sacred Virtue tends,
Though steep and rough at first, in rest it ends;
The other broad and smooth, but from its Crown,
On rocks the Traveler is tumbled down.
He who to Virtue by harsh toils aspires,
Subduing pains, worth and renown acquires;
But who seeks slothful luxury,
And flies the labor of great acts, dishonor'd dies.

Whereas to take a hold of Vice, in plenitude,is easy, for the way is smooth, and near she dwells;yet sweat was placed in front of Virtue by the gods undying; and the road to her is long and steep,and rough at first; yet when one has attained the peak,indeed the way is easy, which was very hard.

Pythagoras was probably the first to use the archaic Y to symbolize this "parting of the ways" (Bivium). The right-hand path is straight, and in this sense natural (i.e., in accord with Nature), but it is narrow and ascends steeply. The left-hand path, in contrast, is a deviation from "the straight and narrow," and therefore against Nature. However, it is wider and an easier slope, and therefore a more attractive choice (We can see this even in our printed Y.)

On the Internet at: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/Intro.html#Y

The ancient Greeks had a huge influence on the world. One of the things they had a great interest in was philosophy, which was a way of trying to understand life and the world by rational means.

Going all the way back in recorded history, and across all cultures, philosophers considered that the universe is full of conflict. For instance, the Chinese have the concept of the Tao, of achieving balance in the conflict of opposites or polarities (yin & yang).

No symbol illustrates this more clearly than the Y. The ancient Greeks observed that the "duad resolves to the monad", or the branches either come from or resolve to the stem, depending on how you look at it. When you look at a tree, you are looking at a Y. So it is a symbol of progress and growth. Growth comes from or through this process of "bifurcation", or a splitting of ways. But another way to see it is that out of the conflict of opposites comes the new way or order of things.

Genesis 3:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

As the quote from Virgil (see above) indicates, the Greeks thought of the two branches of the Y as the paths of "virtue" and "vice", or the right and the left respectively. The Greeks tended to look at these as absolutes while the Chinese sort of saw it as a spectrum. There is no great divide in the two in Chinese thinking.

Odd, I think, that the Bible has this tree, this Y, as a symbol of the "knowledge of good and evil." As Led Zeppelin sang in the song Stairway To Heaven, "Yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run/ There's still time to change the road you're on." We all grapple with this, even at the very core of our being.

We also observe that Jesus was crucified on a Y, a "tree." In a very real sense, he resolved the whole issue of good and evil on the cross. He triumphed over the warfare of good and evil and put it to rest. In a sense, good and evil died there. And the conflict between man and God was also resolved, in that we can find peace with God through his Son.

To be sure, the path of virtue and vice is still before us. If we choose virtue, we will see good days. If we choose vice, it still has its destructive potential. But Jesus resolved the conflict forever. If we put our confidence in him, in what he's done, we are on the right path.